Abstract [en]

Being able to quickly adapt to changes within technology, markets, and customer needs havebecome an increasingly important ability for companies. Today’s society is moving extremelyfast. Digitalization, Internet of Things, machine learning, Artificial Intelleigence, and blockchainare just a few examples of technologies that change behaviours, how value is created, and howcompanies work. Despite these trends, companies are still struggling to adapt organizationalstructures that can deal with quick changes.Innovation capability is one of the pillars for creating long term competitive advantage. Allinnovation begins with an idea, and innovation capability is therefore a critical capability forcompanies. It is however common that valuable ideas are implemented despite many organizationalobstacles, not because of them. Ineffective and long processes, unsystematic and inconsistentevaluation, scarcity of time and resources are just a few examples of obstacles ideas must overcome.There are several solutions for these problems, but since much research is focused onproduct developing companies, the solutions are designed with those in mind. Service companies,and especially digital services, has increased drastically in value during the last decades.It’s therefore interesting to see which specific challenges within idea management these types ofcompanies face. There are several important differences between product and service companieswhich also impacts the design of idea management systems.The aim of this master’s thesis has therefore been to examine which factors that affectidea management in digital service companies. To assist in evaluating and improving the ideamanagement process, measurement and follow up is also very important. Hence, this thesis hasalso aimed to identify which factors should be considered in the design of measurement systemsassociated with idea management.The study has been performed at Thomas Cook Northern Europe, an international charterand travel company. The company has a creative working environment, but have identified problemswith how ideas are managed. The study collected qualitative data from 23 respondentsthrough semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed and resulted in a framework with 5challenges related to idea management, divided into 23 sub-challenges based on the collection,improvement, and evaluation of ideas. Additionally, 12 factors that measurement systems foridea management capability need to consider have been identified. With the help of these challengesand factors digital service companies can develop idea management systems and coupledmeasurement systems.